Internal combustion engines have become an integral component of many cultures throughout the world, providing a means of transportation and power generation while improving people's work productivity, generally. Over the years, researchers have improved many aspects of engine technology. Despite these many advances, unfortunately, engines only operate at about 50% efficiency or lower.
Poor engine efficiency is largely attributable to thermal energy lost during the combustion process. Much of this waste heat is conducted through various engine components and transferred to the environment, providing no useful work whatsoever.
In an effort to improve the efficiency of combustion engines, researchers have developed ways to convert some of the waste heat into useful energy. For example, some researchers have converted waste heat into useful electrical energy that can be used to supplement a portion of the engine's electrical loads.
One such way is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,620 to Zinke (“Zinke”). Zinke discloses an engine block containing thermoelectric materials that generate a direct current during operation and, in so doing, provides for at least some of the necessary engine cooling requirements and for at least some of the electric power requirements. Zinke discloses manufacturing internal combustion engines out of thermocouple-type materials. Zinke also discloses attaching thermoelectric modules to the exterior of an engine for minimizing the redesign of internal engine components.
Thermoelectric devices may either convert electrical energy into thermal energy or thermal energy into electrical energy. Early 19th century scientist Thomas Seebeck discovered the phenomenon of placing a temperature gradient across the junctions of two dissimilar conductors resulted in the flow of electrical current.
The engines disclosed in Zinke, unfortunately, fail in several respects. First, thermoelectric materials do not generally share the same material characteristics as the iron alloys used in engine block and head castings. As a result, an engine composed entirely of thermoelectric materials may exceed design limitations or fail to be robust enough for practical use. Additionally, the cost of thermoelectric materials is generally considerably higher than those of iron alloys. As a result, an engine composed entirely of thermoelectric materials would be prohibitively expensive.
Furthermore, Zinke fails to disclose precise locations for placing these thermoelectric materials. Zinke simply discloses either making an engine entirely out of thermoelectric materials or, in the alternative, generally attaching thermoelectric materials to the engine block. Simply attaching thermoelectric materials to an engine block, without anything further, fails to provide a practical solution for recovering waste heat.
The present disclosure is aimed at overcoming one or more of the shortcomings set forth above.